Airport ramp safety has, until recently, been a hidden safety problem. Airport ramp safety includes the presence of unprotected jet engine blast that has thrown baggage carts through terminal windows, blown trucks over, sucked people through jet intakes, torn roofs off of nearby homes, blown other large aircraft off taxiways, and in many cases wrecked aircraft controls causing several inflight crashes, killing all aboard. Jet blast winds greatly exceed Hurricane Force 5 winds hundreds of feet behind the jet engine(s). The velocity of the jet blast directly behind the aircraft can exceed 350 MPH. It is so serious that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has rated it number 3 on its ‘Most Wanted’ safety list. The Flight Safety Foundation has ranked it in the top 10.
Airlines are suffering a 3 billion dollar plus repair bill annually with indirect costs reaching 3 times that amount. Yet little has been done to mitigate this problem other than installing jet blast fences in the engine run-up areas or the departure ends of runways. The taxiway and ramp areas are largely unprotected from jet engine blast. Other than providing training, better operating procedures and general awareness, there is not any technical response to the problem.
Therefore, for the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a system to alleviate the problems of jet engine blast.